STRATEGY

Ball Control

Pay attention to how many balls each team has. To keep your focus forward, try counting how many balls your opponent has before counting your own team's balls.

If your opponent has ball control, you generally do not want to throw. It’s usually only a good idea to throw when your team has ball control. There are exceptions to this, as "sniping" opponents is an effective strategy. As well, occasionally it is a good idea to throw if there is a good opportunity. Also, throwing when you don't have ball control can sometimes signal to your opponent that you aren't afraid to try to throw at them just because they have more balls.

Keep in mind that giving up ball control does not mean you have to throw all the balls, but just enough to give up your ball control. This is why it’s very important to know who has balls, and who is throwing. Communicate with teammates so as to not give the other team all the balls. If your opponent ends up with all the balls, then you've probably done something wrong. Try to always maintain control of 2 balls for defensive purposes.

Holding down the corners

No matter which team has ball control, if you have 2 or more balls you should always try to have one ball on each side of your court – which means, one person with a ball on the far left and one person with a ball on the far right. I can not stress how important this will be to future team success, as it is a great defensive and offensive positions, which covers many angles.

Scenario: Your team has 3 balls and all three of those balls are on the right side of the court. It is now imperative that one of those balls moves to the left side of the court. Usually yelling out “Ball Left!” is a good way to signal to the rest of the team that you need a ball on the left side of the court. Same for the right side of the court (“Ball Right!”).

Covering corners makes opponents think twice about where and how they throw, gives you more opportunities to hit people from different parts of the court, exposes blind spots, allows for better court vision, and makes the player in the corner a smaller target.

Throwing Together

This is self explanatory. But to break it down a little easier, it’s best if one person takes the lead and counts down for a synchronized throw. This doesn’t mean that everyone has to throw, but try to get at least 2 balls going at the same time while picking ONE TARGET. Throwing together is not that effective when the people throwing together are throwing at different locations, or at different times. This is why it’s very important to have a lot of communication with your teammates.

Communication

Obviously, stay in constant talks with teammates, especially those with balls.

Make sure you get to know all your teammates names!

Slow Down The Pace

Do not feel like you have to throw super quickly once you get a ball. Take your time to find the best throw, or to talk to your teammates about throwing together. There is always time to figure out the layout of the players on the court and make a better decision. Just know that the ball control countdown is usually more time than you think, especially if you have a vocal "floor general" that can gather people together quickly and decisively.

Protect Your Teammates

You actually don’t have to have a ball to do this, but if you notice an opponent about to target a teammate’s blind spot, try to push that opponent back. Pump-Faking (pretending to throw) is a very effective strategy that scares your opponent back, or into a bad throw. Do a lot of pump-faking whenever you’re on the court. If you don’t have a ball, you can pretend like you do and fake a throw at an opponent that isn’t looking at you, because often they won’t know that you don’t have a ball.

Pump Faking

This is a greatly underrated dodgeball technique. This might be one of the most important weapons in a player’s arsenal. It’s simply a fake throw. It helps keep the other team in check by scaring them out of making throws or scaring them into making bad throws. Again, you do not have to have a ball in your hand to do this! Just make them believe you do. Pump faking does take practice, as not all pump fakes are believable.

Get NODA News

Sign up with your email address to receive (occasional) news and updates.